The Shadow of the Reaper
by Outside85
Summary: One of the Teen Titans has died, but the soul lingers...
1. Prologue

Teen Titans: The Shadow of the Reaper

Disclaimer: I don't own either the Teen Titan or anyone else who appears here.

To say the scene before me is odd is an understatement, at least to me. It would have been a beautiful day, sun is shining from a clear sky, and it should be warm enough for the beaches. But I can't say for sure, since I've not felt anything for days. But where the weather today is perfect, the mood of the crowd before me couldn't be more abysmal, but then I guess there's nothing to smile about a funeral. A part of me wants to deny what I am seeing now, telling me I am dreaming that this can't possibly be true. But somewhere deep down inside of me I know the truth, the body, or what's left of it, resting in the coffin surrounded by flowers, is mine.

_Flashback, 5 days before_

Now when I remember it, I end up looking at it like I am a spectator, I can see myself rushing into battle along with my friends, the Teen Titans, self proclaimed protectors of Jump City. I see us coming up on the bank robbery in progress, I see the heavily armed robbers spilling out of the bank with their loot. Then our fearless leader yells his patented orders, rushing us into battle, that's when the bullets begin to fly. The we take cover as best we can, Robin orders up forward and we take cover behind an empty bus that's been abandoned, parking it halfway across the road. Robin suspected the robbers where a former military unit gone bad, since some kept running back and forth between the bank while the rest kept us pinned none of them speaking. A sudden "whosh" and a blast of warm air sends us flying, I could now see one of the robbers was quickly reloading a rocket launcher he had used to turn our bus cover into a blazing ball of fire. I had been standing farthest from the bus when it blew, so I got to my feet the fastest. I can see through the inferno that the robber with the launcher has already picked his new target, time seems to slow, the rocket is aiming straight for us, I have only one choice, I block the rocket using myself as a shield to save my friends. The barrier I create is only strong enough to stop the initial explosion; I throw my cloak wide trying to intercept the shrapnel, but at a cost. I feel them penetrate my body, strangely I feel no pain, even as time seems to return to normal speed, I see my body turned to bloody ruin. From where I stand now I see my friends still lying on the ground straining to look through the smoke, the smoke is cruel, it lifts enough for them to see me still standing, I remember I wanted to make sure they were unharmed, so I tried to turn but I fall to the ground when I try. I end up looking at the sky, that day it was also beautiful, I can't turn my head and I feel so strangely tired. My eyes swing into a little more focus when my friends enter my field of vision, I can feel a hand beneath head lifting me slightly, shock and disbelief is written on their faces. I try to speak, only to choke on the warm sticky fluid that is my blood. As if the moment had been waiting for me to do so, my eyes began to lose focus again, my eyelids become heavy, I hear screaming and crying as my eyes finally close for the final time.

I suddenly open them again, seeing the robbers make their getaway, I see my friends gathering around my body. I call out to them to tell them that I am unharmed, but they don't hear me, I run over to make eye contact, but they do not see me even when I am standing right in front of them, yelling at them to snap them out of it. I receive my first shock when I try to grab Robin's collar to shake him, my hands pass right through him. The sudden realization his me, I am dead, I am invisible, unheard and unseen, a ghost.

_End of flashback._

Thinking back now I find it almost funny it ended like this, sure we all knew the risk we took every time we moved out, but we had faced everything from psychopaths, alien invaders, calculating tyrant wanna-bees and even a demonic invasion for crying out loud. And trough all the horror we always came out on top, my friends and I, sure some of our victories felt hollow but we endured, the five of us. And now I had gone and died in something as stupid as a robbery. Life's cruel joke I suppose, with all the danger in our lives I think we may have forgotten how dangerous our line of work really is. That while we may not flinch when faced by a horde of aliens, but ordinary people may go into therapy after being mugged.

When he takes the stand, I am surprised that there was a priest that would hold the ceremony. I never was one of his God's children. I see my closest friends on the front rows, two of them crying openly two others fighting to remain strong. I see the rest of the extended family that is the Teen Titans, all four teams have gathered here today. I spot a few representatives from the city and a few other places we helped save, I even spot a few Justice Leaguers in the back, which kind of surprises me since we never had much contact with them. Taking a closer look I am even more surprised when I see it is Superman, Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter, I spot Batman sitting in a tree at the cemetery fence hiding in the shadows.

The priest begins his opening speech, which sounds like formality to me, he doesn't speak very long before handing over the podium to Robin. I feel I need to leave; I don't want to hear his shattered voice again. I had seen my friend break down completely when they returned to the Tower. Starfire flew off almost immediately wanting solitude, when night fell one could see the flashed of green on the horizon, the flashes of her anger and grief demolishing a distant valley. Robin had remained stoic till he reached his room, where he had dropped down into his char string into empty space for a second before looking at a picture of the team he had framed on his table. First the tears star to fall, then the rage takes hold, he screams as he goes about destroying his room, nothing is left intact except the picture he now hugs to his chest. Beastboy ran teary eyed to his room first, but couldn't stay there, his mind seemed to be in chaos, he couldn't decide whenever to scream or curl up in ball. In the end he collapses on his bed. Cyborg wandered the tower like a zombie, till he found himself sitting on a pile of spare tires. Like Robin he caches a glimpse of something, a red toolbox, a gift he had given me once after I helped him reassemble his first car. Cyborg gently hugs the toolbox, as if it was a baby, and rocks gently back and forth on the tires.

As I face away from the funeral, I spot the mass of people standing outside the cemetery, kept at bay by the police. My death seemed to have sparked more interest in me than I ever wanted in life; there had been no end to the specials and extras. Strangely in life I was never the focus of any sort of media attention, few times I had read that the Titans only had four members, and once that I was some kind of fan that the rest of the team allowed to tag along. It didn't really bother me, better they made up their stories than knowing the truth. And I hated being the center of attention, made me feel like a freak.

It's strange, I've read a lot of books about people that have had near death experiences and the like. Dante's account seemed to have rooted itself and a lot of the other accounts seemed to mirror his to a degree, but some are a bit more original, with the writer's claiming to wake up at heaven's doorstep, in purgatory or hell. Some even claim to have been led to these places by their inhabitants, but none of these had happened to me, yet. I wonder why I still linger, days after my heart stopped beating nothing has happened. No angles, no clouds, not even my damned father had come to claim me yet, something I suspect he would dearly want to do. I begin to wonder if there really is an afterlife.

I notice that there seems to be a kind of bright light behind me, its intensity rising, no one at the gate seems to see it. I turn to face whatever is coming; I see nothing except the light and the shape of a human taking form within. It seems to be wearing a cloak and a hood, the light is too bright too see its color, before I can see anymore of him it speaks, its voice reminds me of the voice God used in a movie Gar once made me watch:

"Raven of the Teen Titans, you are needed!"


	2. Divine Intervention

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the other things appearing here.**

**Author Notes: Sorry it took so long, but fear not this story is not forgotten.**

Chapter 1: Divine Intervention

Before me, the light dims to reveal what looks like a man with milk white skin, who is as tall as a three story building, dressed in only a pair of green shorts, a green cloak and hood that, like mine, only reveals his face below the nose. My jaw pretty much drops to the ground at the sight, it continues to speak. "You have now a unique chance to continue your fight for justice and for the redemption of your soul. Will you help me?"

Although he is virtually unknown to most, before me stand quite possibly the single most powerful entity in existence. Capable of virtually **anything**, this being is thought to be responsible for several devastating events only described in various holy texts and recently, a country that was wiped off the map. The Justice League, various government s and every mystic of earth knows of him and fear him, me included. Before me stands the Spectre, the Spirit of Vengeance, to some God's embodied wrath and he wants my help.

Considering my parentage, that he wants my help, is nothing short of a miracle in itself. During my life I hoped he would appear before me before my destiny could unfold after it did unfold, I feared he would choose to appear anyways. His duty is to punish the wicked for their deeds, those who have committed acts of wrong in the eyes of his lord, and I, a half-breed of the infernal pit, am most fitting of his punishment.

"Child, what is your answer?" I am at a loss for words.

"Wha…What is it you wish?" Through all of this his face has remained expressionless.

"Raven, I am in need of your help. My former host has earned his final rest; I am offering you the choice of being his successor." I drop to my knees at this, it has to be a trick, his Lord's cruel joke. I know the Spectre once roamed free until he lost sights of his true mission, ever since it has been decreed that he remain anchored to a mortal's soul in order for him to distinguish between right and wrong. In other words, the power to remake reality is placed in the hands of a mortal. What I say next is the only possible reply from me.

"I… I can't possibly be worthy of this…" I look up at him, hoping to see a smile that, like my friends, would reveal that his joke had been satisfying to him. I see the odd, skull shaped; iris in his glowing green eyes, a fitting thing to be the last thing you see. I am terrified to find nothing hinting of a final joke in them, it scares me even more that she seems to shrink to half size and is getting down on his right knee.

"Child, why would you be unworthy in the eyes of the almighty?"

"I can't possibly be! I am the daughter of a demon; I was born an atrocity. A means for the world to end at my father's hands, something I accomplished, I destroyed the world by bringing him here."

"Yet you rebelled against him to the last, laying the stones for his eventual destruction at your own hands and the salvation of this universe."

"It doesn't change what I am, you cannot trust me with this." Still, neither his eyes nor his face shows any hint of emotion.

"As could be said of several of my former hosts, you may know of the Green Lantern that served as my host. He had murdered millions under the influence of a spirit parasite called Parallax, when he was offered the choice; he also claimed he was unworthy of the chance." I had indeed heard of Hal Jordan's rise, his decent into madness and later salvation that returned him to the living.

"But I am not under the influence of a foreign element; the evil within me is a part of me."

"You have lived in fear of your farther, and the power that he left within you your entire life, even after you destroyed him. Yet you always stove to do good things, to help those in need no matter what that would cost you. You gave up your own happiness to safeguard your friends', you helped them with whatever problems they came to you with and now for the second time you gave up everything, knowing what it may do to you, so save their lives. In your eyes, you have embraced your own damnation twice for your friends, even if you didn't always believe your dedication to them was returned equally. Before your fathers defeat, as you saw, your fears where correct, you would have been damned. But the almighty has taken notice of you after that, judging if you still deserved your predestined fate. Your tireless self-sacrifice has earned you this chance to aid me in my work and prove that you are truly worthy of the almighty's blessing." His reason is as sound as it is true, I would never hesitate to give everything for my friends, the ones that took me in without a question, and the ones who stood by my side even when I revealed what I am and what I was meant to do. Yet I hesitate, I know the Spectre's mission is to punish the wicked…

"It is not actually, my mission is to comprehend evil one soul at a time, as to truly know the difference between good and evil. I know you abhor the taking of any life fearing it would damn your soul further by the act, even now you do. But there is more than one way to confront evil."

"But I cannot be trusted with this, not alone."

"Fear not, I will be there to guide you, as we would become one." I find his words somehow reassuring, even if his face still has not changed even slightly.

"What would become of me if I declined?" I'll admit his offer is becoming hard to resist, yet this one question remains.

"Even I cannot say, I do not judge souls after they have passed from the mortal realm." It makes sense to me; the executioner cannot also be the judge and jury and still be fair and unbiased.

I get to my feet, covering myself in my cloak and hood, so I at least look like I possess the dignity to hold the office he is offering me.

"What is your decision?"

"I will accept your offer, but do not hesitate to cast me out if I prove unworthy of it." For the first time his face changes, revealing a small smile. He seems to grow again, to the size of a four story building before his form begins to twist, like a wet towel, beginning from the head down. With his lower body and legs still in shape, the point of the twisted spirit spirals towards me, halting before my chest for a second before making contact.

I explode at the touch; I see it all, feel it all and hear it all, every soul out there is, is known to me. It only lasts a second before the sensation passes; I know the spirit has dulled it as not to drive me insane. I slowly regain my sight, noticing the entering must have blown me off my feet or the whole world is tilted. I see the graveyard, it's dark, raining and there is no one around. I know, somehow, that my time talking with the spirit has taken longer than it would in the living world, as the transition only took a few seconds. I get a dizzy feeling as I try to get to my feet, getting up on my hands and knees for starters; the ground beneath me already feels mushy in my hand. It suddenly strikes me; I can **feel **the mushy ground in my hand! I freeze at the sensation's; I can feel air being drawn into my lungs, the rain slowly soaking my cloak. I look down as I slowly lift my hand, seeing the wet ground following it.

It's true, the little things you just tend to do automatically, like breathing, is only missed when you can't. Having been a ghost you miss it, like you miss every sensation you had in life. When you're dead and lingering you don't feel anything and you can't touch anything as you will just pass thought it, to be able to feel and touch again is indescribable. I slowly rise to my feet, taking in every sensation I can from doing so, I am renewed I feel alive!

Looking around myself first I end up looking down into a puddle, seeing my own features. I still look like the 20 year old woman I was before I took the rocket in the chest. Like the rest of my friends, I have grown older with the passing of the years. I've grown taller, about the height Starfire had when we first met, of course she still has that extra height on me as she's grown just as much. With gained height, my forms have filled out, something drunks and college boys kept reminding me of, whenever Starfire was not next to me that is that is. I still use my cloak and leotard, even if the others have tried to get me to change costume, even if only temporarily. Looking in the puddle, I recognize myself with a few changes. Instead of my favored deep midnight blue cloak and boots, they are now a deep green color, a little lighter than the cloak the emoticlone Bravery was usually wearing whenever I visited my mindscape. Where my skin was usually a light ash grey color, something lots of people, especially the press, labeled me Goth because of, it's now closer to the color of a corpse or if someone is lacking blood. A nudge in back of my head tells me I shouldn't change this, it's kind of a badge of office to wear the Spectre's colors while it is my form they are applied to. I thank Azar that I am still wearing my usual leotard, wearing something in the same fashion as the Spectre didn't really appeal to me at all, nothing but underwear. More disturbing for me though is my eyes, once purple, are now also green with the skull shaped pupils. The nudge in my head tells me I cannot stay here forever, and I have to agree. But before I go, I need to see one thing first.


	3. Spirit of Vengeance or Mercy?

Chapter 2: new beginning

Walking around the site I am amazed at the amount of flowers, and in so many colors, yet none of them bright. Well over half of them are in some shade of purple or blue, there's even a black rose close to the stone, its sitting next to a red rose near the head stone, I guess Robin put the red one there. The headstone itself is special that much is clear from its size alone; the top is decorated with a raven shielding the rest of the stone from the rain with its outstretched wings while its beak is pointing down. Had I not been able to see the detail, I would have thought they had copied the design of the wall behind my bed back at the tower. I am moved when I read the writing on the stone;

Here lies Raven of Azerath

A true hero

A true friend

A true Titan

I never really thought too much about what would happen after I died, but when I did, I thought I would have been put down while I had lost myself to my father's side and whatever was left would be dumped in a hole somewhere and forgotten as fast as possible. In life I tried to be a hero, but I never really felt like one. More like one trying to make up for something that could never be forgiven. Reviewing my life, I can't really say I was that much of a friend to those around me. Constantly getting annoyed by their antics and pushing away most of their attempts to get me to join them in favor of reading, meditation or for the sake of being alone. Yes, I was often the one they came to when they needed advise on various matters they felt they couldn't ask or tell the others, but that couldn't have meant that much, could it?

The now constant nudging in my head is getting on my nerves.

"You can stop that now." I want to be able to talk to the Spectre, not have him backseat driving.

"My apologies, but our mission awaits and I sense we are needed nearby." I know what he means, I feel too, like a moth drawn to a flame. I make myself disappear into myself, like I am used to. I take one last look at the mass of flowers covering my grave, and swear I will assist my friends through this troublesome time.

I appear, in the shadows, inside a rundown apartment, there are cracks visible in the walls where the tapestry has been torn off. There is a cheap wooden table with two overturned chairs in the middle of the room, one solid looking dinner plate is still on the table, the remains of the other is scattered around the two figures in the room. One male, Hans Fleichburg, 44 year old second generation German immigrant, he is overweight, balding and unshaven, dressed in an undershirt, a worn pair of brown pants and equally worn yellow socks. He is married to the woman he his cradling in his arms as he crouches on the floor. Lisa Henderson was her name before she married Hans. At the age of 39 she is also of German decent, third generation. I know she is stocky of build, but she was beautiful when she was younger. Dressed in a greenish dress and a cooking apron, with her dark hair in a bun, her chest has stopped to rise as the bleeding wound on her forehead tells of a serious blow.

Time seems to slow as I see her soul, a bluish grey ghost slowly rise from her body, she appears to be crying although she doesn't make a sound from her mouth movements I can tell she is desperately pleading Hans for forgiveness before she slowly disappears. The nudge in the back of my head announces the Spectre's presence.

"This man has committed murder; it is now our job to punish him. You are to choose, but he must be punished for his crime." I nod at the voice, while walking around the frozen pair, victim and felon. I unfreeze time, and prepare to do what I have to do.

"Hans Fleichburg! Your judgment has come, swears the Spectre!" I know this is the Spectre talking, as it comes out as the voice I heard in the graveyard. Hans looks up in surprise at me with tear filled eyes, looking into them, I suddenly know everything about him. Overweight even as a child, he was often bullied even moved school because of it. I see him struggling through life, as he feels like he is never good enough for anyone or anything. At the age of 35, all that changes when he meets Lisa. They get married and Hans gets a good job. But their happiness comes to a halt a few months ago when the business Hans works in is forced to fire him. They have to move into this apartment, as Hans is unable to get a new job Lisa and him begin to argue growing more heated each time. Culminating tonight when Lisa threatened to leave him before she slapped him, Hans see's red, the last time someone hit him was back in school. Picking up his plate he brings the edge down on Lisa's skull, scattering the plate and cracking her skull. Instantly realizing what he has done, he picks up her fallen form, weeping as the one point of light in his life is slowly dimming in front of his eyes. "You have taken a life, and you must face your punishment." This time it is my own voice, Hans buries his head in his wife's shoulder.

"I… I didn't mean to…my God…my dear Lisa…" I feel the Spectre feeling me ideas how this man's punishment could be realized. I choose to ignore him, never in life have I taken another life, I will not start with this.

"Look at me Hans." He slowly raises his head looking at me his eyes widening a little.

"You… You're dead! I saw your funeral on the TV." I guess I have to get used to this at least for the time being.

"Hans, would you willingly have struck your wife under normal circumstances?" I already know the answer before he speaks.

"Never… never, she was the only light in my life. But the argument, she hit me, I couldn't control it…" I know he is speaking the truth, he doesn't deserve punishment and he is already in hell. I send out a summons, drawing a nearby police patrol to check out the domestic disturbance.

"Remember her Hans, remember what you have done and take your punishment." I we stare at each other until the police knocks on the door making Hans turn his head away, when he turns back, I am gone. The police knocks again, louder this time.

"Come in…the door is unlocked." Hans doesn't look at the officers entering, finding him with his dead wife in his hands. I reappear on the roof.

"Not the way I would have chosen to do it." The Spectre seems to have understood I didn't like the nudging.

"He will forever remember that he took away the only thing that mattered in his life, if that is not punishment, I don't know what is." The ghost seems to grumble at this. "As you saw, his wife begged for his forgiveness before she moved on. If it can be avoided, I will not punish people with premature death."

"As you wish." He sounds like he is giving up. Again I get the sensation, I am needed elsewhere.


	4. Monster of the Light

Chapter 3: Light a candle

Another apartment another part of town, a familiar figure stands in the ruins of a former home. I see the parents lying dead in the corner, the scorch marks and the smell tells be they have been burned to death. Their three daughters are cowering next to the bed, each dressed in a torn superhero costume that doesn't fit their small sizes. The youngest, 9 years old, is dressed as me, another, 12, as Starfire the last, 11, as Bumblebee. They are too young to hear what the monster is planning with them, as if the murder of their parents wasn't bad enough, he is planning on raping them, again, before doing the same to them. And the monster in question is doing this as a celebration, of my demise. Standing only in his goofy helmet and his pants, I wonder if the trauma I once inflicted on him was severe enough, coming to the conclusion that it wasn't.

"Now I want you, Starfire and Bumblebee to hold down our darling Raven while I work." We always thought of him as a joke, yet now I see the monster I held in check merely by drawing breath. He cannot be allowed to continue. Appearing begin him, I speak in my own voice.

"Arthur Light, your judgment has come, so swears the Spectre!" Dr. Light spins around to face me, his eyes goes wide with fear.

"NO! It can't be! Your dead! I read all the papers to be sure it was correct!" He backs away as I advance towards him till he bumps against the wall, I have the door slam shut next to him. Light backs into a corner before he sees what is happening to him, his entire body except his head is encasing in wax.

"Arthur Light! You hands are stained with the blood of innocents! You are a murderer! A rapists! A tormentor of children! You where gifted with the power of light… Burn!" Light's head bursts into flame and he screams. After five minutes I finally let him expire, his screaming stops completely when I extinguish the last embers with my fingers. For some reason I feel strangely satisfied doing that, ending the torment he was inflicting on the girls.

Then I remember as I turn to them and their tear filled eyes. I see they recognize me as well, I can do nothing by make them fall asleep in each other's arms, forgetting they have seen the gruesome demise of their tormentor. I hear the sirens down below as the police race to this place, I take my leave there is more work to be done elsewhere.


	5. Observing the living

Chapter 4: Mystery

The following morning, Titans Tower.

It feels kind of wrong to do this, but I need to know instantly when I am needed here. During the night I sent out a copy of myself simply to observe my former friends.

Robin woke up as usual, just before daybreak grabbing his coffee he goes t the roof to watch the sunrise. But to him the sun's promise of a new day is indeed hollow, because he is alone is watching it rise. I remember making it a habit of mine to watch it with him, after my father was vanquished. I m surprised to hear Robin begin to talk.

"Rae, I am so sorry, it shouldn't have been you. Why did it have to be you? I should have been me…" I try to look away, Robin, our learless and obsessive leader, breaking down. I hear him scream and throw his coffee cup into the air in anguish. Dropping to his knees panting and muttering under his breath; "I need a break from here." After regaining himself after a few moments, he makes his way back inside. Following him into the living room I see the others have also awoken. It is a dismal sight; no one seems to have been sleeping for the past week. Starfire reminds me of a flower that has been without water for too long, as she is sitting as the table. Her green eyes once shone with happiness, now seems dulled in her depression. Her expression only lights up slightly when Robin enters the room, but it is quickly dulled again when he makes his way to the main computer ignoring her. Beastboy is back in the mood I knew he kept for over two weeks after we were betrayed by Terra, looking as much as a bloodhound without actually having turned into one. Cyborg seems unchanged on the outside, but the grief welling from within him is almost a physical thing. I notice how bad things are as he and Beastboy aren't even engaging in their morning Tofu vs. meat ritual. They are just quietly trying to avoid bumping into each other as they maneuver around the kitchen that never seemed big enough for them, quietly apologizing whenever they did.

"Guys…" I can feel the confusion, rage and frustration radiating off Robin as he calls for the others attention. Before I turn towards him, I guess he is about to announce he will be taking a vacation. I am wrong; he has brought up a news paper page on the big screen. It's not the front page, which is probably dominated by my funeral's coverage. He page he has brought up has a smaller script size, indicating it as a footnote story:

"Dr. Light found murdered at crime scene."

"Early this morning, police were called to the scene in an apartment building on 67th street, due to reports of a scream being heard by one of the tenants. The police found Thomas and Katharine Mitchell to have been brutally murdered, their three daughters raped and what is believed to be the remains of Dr. Arthur Light. The three daughters all claim that Dr. Light had broken into their home, killed their parents and raped them as a celebration of the funeral of the Teen Titan Raven. Dr. Light had undergone extensive therapy after encountering the Teen heroine years ago, whom he claimed almost killed him. The children claim that Raven or a figure dressed as her appeared and cornered Light. When they awoke she was gone, and Dr. Light appeared to have been encased in wax. Police are currently without leads in the case."

I can feel the confusion from my friends as they read the article.

"So someone killed Dr. Light, not like he wouldn't have ended up killing himself at some point anyways." Cyborg tries to sound indifferent.

"Please, why did the Doctor of Light wish to celebrate friend Raven's funeral?" Starfire seems to think the world is weeping for me.

"You know he always crumbled around her even after talking big to the rest of us." Beastboy's voice sounds changes, it the lack of humor in it. "So what does it mean Rob?"

"It means that I need to talk to the police for starters." Robin without a real plan, I never thought I'd get to hear it. Robin heads off, slowly for him, jogging for the rest of us. After he is gone Cyborg voices his fears.

"Man I hope this is not going to be what I fear it is."

"Please what may that be friend Cyborg?" Starfire looks at him with those kitten eyes she always wears when asking for anything.

"That we have a killer in the city that's dressing up as Rae." Starfire's eyes begin to glow brightly in anger.

"No! No one must dishonor our friend like that!" She seems ready to attack anything at the slightest provocation as she hovers in front of Cyborg.

"I know Star and whoever it is, if he or she really did dress up like Rae, I swear I'm going to make them regret it." I always was a little sister to him even if we weren't even remotely related.

"Guys you don't think… that it really could be Rae?" Cyborg and Starfire stares at him for a moment.

"BB, I want her to come back as much as you do, but we can't be that lucky again. And if that is her now, that would mean she killed Dr. Light." Now the group's big bother has come to Beastboy.

"I know, but it could be, you know, her bad side?"

"BB, I pray it is not that, if it is, we are going to be in deep trouble."

"Friends what is that on the ground?" The morning sun is shining through the large windows I am standing in front of; I look at the spot where Starfire is pointing, seeing a pale shadow there that stops, at my feet! I quickly realize that I have unconsciously begun becoming solid, I quickly disappear completely.

I leave them to follow Robin; it seems the better idea after almost appearing in the living room. Robin is speeding down the road on his bike, without his helmet on, towards Police HQ. Parking the bike, I follow him inside the chaos that always seems to reign inside, yelling policemen and civilians are always crowding the place. Robin ignores it as always, asking the desk keeper to let him talk to the commissioner, getting sent in the right direction of the office.

Commissioner Fredrick's' office is large and untidy, dominated by his large desk at the window's. The light makes the man seem bigger, if that was necessary. Fredrick is a black man, easily pushing 2m in height and with the body of a drill sergeant that makes his uniform seem small, and his appearance is quite intimidating when you add his bald head.

"So what can I do for you Robin?" His voice is deep, as his size would suggest.

"I heard about Light." I know Robin well enough to know he is annoyed, even if he doesn't let it show, and he hates being left out of a loop.

"We didn't want to bother you with him due to the current circumstances. But I figured we would have to at some point. Come, I'll walk with you to the morgue." I follow them as they walk, neither of them bothering with conversation in the noise outside the commissioner's office.

Entering the morgue they are met by a sickly looking fellow with thick glasses and brown curly hair with a pen and paper, his pale skin tells me he doesn't get out in the sun a lot.

"So what can I do for you gentlemen?"

"Light." I can feel Fredrick's isn't happy with the other man's lack of respect.

"In the back corner." The man motions with his pen over his left shoulder before he disappears behind a curtain.

I can see the confusion in Robin as he looks at the mass of wax in front of him.

"Is this some kind of joke Commissioner?"

"No, from what "Curly" back there told us, someone trapped Light in inside that, then set fire to his head."

"Light the candle." "Curly" could be heard in the background, the commissioner rolling his eyes along with me, only a coroner could have such a humor.

"We have no idea how it happened, the floor in the room we found him in had a carpet that would have melted along with the wax. But it wasn't even singed; it was as if someone had just placed him there after trapping him. The only burn marks the room had was from the fire they started in his head, no sighs of anything flammable seems to have been used on him though." Robin only nods, I can tell he is thinking how this is possible.

"What about the witnesses?"

"They were asleep when we arrived; I put it down to shock. But they claim that a person appeared out of thin air in the bedroom, dressed in a green cloak and hood, in the same fashion as your friend Raven." The commissioner had been in the job long enough to know that, saying things like that can spark a heated argument. But I can see Robin has gone into detective mode, where almost all personal feelings on the matter are buried by the need to solve the crime.

"Can I speak with them?"

"I will call you when they wake up."


End file.
